Price : Too low to display
The Killer? Xeno? Pro gaming network card is the high-performance PCIe network card built specifically to improve network performance for online games. Updated with our Advanced Game Detect? technology, the Killer Xeno prioritizes online game traffic and delivers smoother, more responsive gameplay during intense online action in all your favorite MMO and FPS games.
This review is from : Killer Xeno Pro Gaming Network Card (Whitebox)
If you play games and wish to be known as a Gamer . i play COD:Black Ops and used to get around 50-60 FPS installed this (kinda hard doing the software install) and was seeing a steady 70FPS and when the action got intense it went up to 91+/- FPS. Gives a very nice boost of performance when its needed (explosions, many players around you, very fast paced action happening in close proximity) It seems to only boost when there is a higher draw on bandwidth when a normal NPU would remain the same this one is smart and scales to what you need.
the Bandwidth usage controller is EXCELLENT! allowing you to throttle certain applications back a little to get even more bandwidth for the game! be sure to use "ww? dot speedtest dot net" to determine your connection speed and enter it in manually, for mine failed the auto self test.
great device, would highly recommend it to people with mid grade game rigs, the "just playable" gamer would really appreciate this.
If you play games and wish to be known as a Gamer . i play COD:Black Ops and used to get around 50-60 FPS installed this (kinda hard doing the software install) and was seeing a steady 70FPS and when the action got intense it went up to 91+/- FPS. Gives a very nice boost of performance when its needed (explosions, many players around you, very fast paced action happening in close proximity) It seems to only boost when there is a higher draw on bandwidth when a normal NPU would remain the same this one is smart and scales to what you need.
the Bandwidth usage controller is EXCELLENT! allowing you to throttle certain applications back a little to get even more bandwidth for the game! be sure to use "ww? dot speedtest dot net" to determine your connection speed and enter it in manually, for mine failed the auto self test.
great device, would highly recommend it to people with mid grade game rigs, the "just playable" gamer would really appreciate this.
Killer Xeno Pro Gaming Network Card (Whitebox) Reviews
Killer Network Gaming . This is a Great Network Card; problably the best there is!
Dose exactly as advertised! It really frees up my CPU and increases my Multiplayer Gaming Speed.
Killer Network Gaming . This is a Great Network Card; problably the best there is!
Dose exactly as advertised! It really frees up my CPU and increases my Multiplayer Gaming Speed.
Cons Review
Good Idea for a Product But Lousy Execution . I'll state up front that I'm not a gamer -- I just don't play games on my PC, at all -- I have an entirely separate gaming system for that. But, despite not being a gamer, I still like the idea of this product... Having an entirely independent processor running its own OS and focused on nothing but ensuring that my Internet connection is used more efficiently, and acting to add a measure of extra security -- you don't have to be a gamer to appreciate that.
However, the benefits have been utterly countered by poor execution, in this case...
First, there's a documentation problem, starting with there being NO documentation provided on the CD that comes with this board -- not a single text or PDF file. The CD comes with a set of 5 exe files for installing the software for this card -- different ones for 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of XP, Vista and Windows 7. Naturally, I went to the website to download the documentation, but then I discovered that the documentation seems to belong to the version 5.xx of the software for this card (which seems to date back to 2009?), and does not at all match even a single feature of the version 6.xx software that is either on the CD, or that can be downloaded from the website from the very same page where this out-of-date documentation can be downloaded from.
When I say the documentation is out-of-date, I'm talking about a significant issue, because nothing, including the installation procedure, the way the software menus are organized, or even what anything in the software is called remains the same between version 5.xx and version 6.xx of the software -- they clearly did a complete rewrite of the software to the point where the documentation for the version 5.xx software is completely useless when used with the version 6.xx software. To finally resolve the software issue, I figured out that the newer "Killer 2100" series boards also seem to use the version 6.xx software, and so I downloaded the documentation for that card -- this worked, and I found myself finally having documentation that actually matched the software.
Second, there's a feature problem, starting with what appears to be a deactivation of the audio and USB connectors on this card. When this card was first introduced, various features such as an independent audio system for VOIP communications and independent storage of downloaded files onto a USB drive attached to this card were part of what was touted as being its advantages. The older documentation (and presumably, the version 5.xx software that went with it) apparently enabled use of these features. However, there is nothing in the version 6.xx software for this card that even hints at it still being possible to use either of these features (and of course, they don't seem to have documentation for this card that matches the version 6.xx software), and so it appears that the audio and USB connectors have been rendered non-functional such that they will now do nothing.
There is also the question of the mysteriously disappearing firewall function. When this card was first introduced, another of the touted features was the ability to use its onboard processor as the core of a firewall that was good enough to allow users to cease wasting CPU cycles on their main processor running a firewall under Windows. However, just like the audio and USB connectors, there is no hint in the version 6.xx software of anything at all about a firewall (and again, there's no documentation for this card matching the version 6.xx software that says anything about it). This brings up important questions... Does the version 6.xx software do away with the firewall functionality such that a user must now go back to having firewall software running on their main processor? Or is the firewall still there, but just hidden under the cover and not really talked about, anymore? If the firewall is still there, then shouldn't there at least be a user configurable setting in the software to turn it on and off? And what kind of firewall is it, anyway -- stateful packet inspection? NAT address translation?
Third, there's a usability problem, starting with navigating the menus of the version 6.xx software... Although I'm sure the color scheme was meant to give this software a look and feel something like one of the many games that are out there (a kind of dark and gothic look), what things are "clickable" in the user interface is not entirely obvious, and it's hard to tell if the checkboxes are checked or not. Things that are clickable should look like they are, whether by being made to look like buttons, or being underlined like links, or in some other way that the typical computer user will be able to tell at a glance that something more will happen if they click on it -- and the manual is only marginally helpful in making clear what is and is not clickable.
The useability problem also extends to the manual... While there are five tabs in the main menuing system of the software that represent some kind of effort made in the user interface to organize functions in a way intended to make them easier to find, the manual completely ignores this organizational effort. Instead, the manual likes to jump around from something under one tab, to something under another tab, and then back to some under that earlier tab -- and there aren't a lot of clear headings in the manual that might actually provide a system of order that would cause the jumping around to make some kind of sense. This makes looking up different parts of the user interface rather difficult.
Fourth, there is a bugginess problem, starting with the priority and allow/block settings for each application (BTW, they should have used the word "processes" instead of "applications" -- their settings are actually per process, and there is an important different between a process and an application). One of the few clearly clickable items in the user interface is supposed to allow the application settings to be "reset" -- only "reset" doesn't quite mean what everyone would think "reset" means -- it does not undo your changes to the application settings and bring them back to some set of factory defaults. Instead, it is a way to universally change all application settings to whatever priority level and allow/block setting you've selected on two menu items, nearby.
With such a "reset" button (which really functions as a global "set" button), one would think that you could specify a global setting for all applications (actually, processes), and then go into the other part of the user interface where per-application settings could be tinkered with so that you could set a few specific applications to other settings than whatever you used as a "global" setting. But the software seems to suffer unpredictable bouts of selective amnesia where it decides to forget a setting you gave an application, and this most often happens after you've turned off and then rebooted your computer at some later time -- indeed, I found myself facing episodes of the software having thrown out every per-application setting I had ever made! And sometimes, this forgetting involves changing everything to the last global setting, and sometimes, this forgetting involves changing some per-application settings to something that I had never set any of them to. It's actually unpredictable!
Finally, with this card and its software installed, there are recurring instances in which I cannot get either Firefox or Internet Explorer to start -- I can just keep clicking on their icons, again and again, and nothing happens. This occurs more often when you have the user interface of the version 6.xx software open so that you can use its fancy real-time performance graphs to watch what this card is doing, but it also still occasionally happens even when the user interface is not open. I find that the only thing I can do (short of rebooting) is to go into Task Manager, and stop whatever Firefox or Internet Explorer process is running as a result of previous unsuccessful attempts to start them, and then I can click on their icons and get on with using them. The version 6.xx software may not have this effect on games, but I have to believe that even gamers still occasionally want open a browser to do more mundane Internet-related tasks, such as maybe buy something online?
In short, if this thing worked, and actually did the things it is supposed to do (including the firewall and buffering downloads, etc.), it would be a really nice idea, and I would even buy multiple ones of these to make the Internet functionality of a whole bunch of computers under my care work faster and better. But the implementation in this case is horrible. Did anyone at this company put themselves through a simple "user experience" test to see what it's like for someone to buy one of these, install it, and then use it based solely on what comes in the box? Did anyone at this company do any testing of this software to ensure that settings selected by a user remain set as they intended or that this software wouldn't interfere with the more day-to-day kinds of Internet uses beyond gaming?
These guys have some work to do.
However, the benefits have been utterly countered by poor execution, in this case...
First, there's a documentation problem, starting with there being NO documentation provided on the CD that comes with this board -- not a single text or PDF file. The CD comes with a set of 5 exe files for installing the software for this card -- different ones for 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of XP, Vista and Windows 7. Naturally, I went to the website to download the documentation, but then I discovered that the documentation seems to belong to the version 5.xx of the software for this card (which seems to date back to 2009?), and does not at all match even a single feature of the version 6.xx software that is either on the CD, or that can be downloaded from the website from the very same page where this out-of-date documentation can be downloaded from.
When I say the documentation is out-of-date, I'm talking about a significant issue, because nothing, including the installation procedure, the way the software menus are organized, or even what anything in the software is called remains the same between version 5.xx and version 6.xx of the software -- they clearly did a complete rewrite of the software to the point where the documentation for the version 5.xx software is completely useless when used with the version 6.xx software. To finally resolve the software issue, I figured out that the newer "Killer 2100" series boards also seem to use the version 6.xx software, and so I downloaded the documentation for that card -- this worked, and I found myself finally having documentation that actually matched the software.
Second, there's a feature problem, starting with what appears to be a deactivation of the audio and USB connectors on this card. When this card was first introduced, various features such as an independent audio system for VOIP communications and independent storage of downloaded files onto a USB drive attached to this card were part of what was touted as being its advantages. The older documentation (and presumably, the version 5.xx software that went with it) apparently enabled use of these features. However, there is nothing in the version 6.xx software for this card that even hints at it still being possible to use either of these features (and of course, they don't seem to have documentation for this card that matches the version 6.xx software), and so it appears that the audio and USB connectors have been rendered non-functional such that they will now do nothing.
There is also the question of the mysteriously disappearing firewall function. When this card was first introduced, another of the touted features was the ability to use its onboard processor as the core of a firewall that was good enough to allow users to cease wasting CPU cycles on their main processor running a firewall under Windows. However, just like the audio and USB connectors, there is no hint in the version 6.xx software of anything at all about a firewall (and again, there's no documentation for this card matching the version 6.xx software that says anything about it). This brings up important questions... Does the version 6.xx software do away with the firewall functionality such that a user must now go back to having firewall software running on their main processor? Or is the firewall still there, but just hidden under the cover and not really talked about, anymore? If the firewall is still there, then shouldn't there at least be a user configurable setting in the software to turn it on and off? And what kind of firewall is it, anyway -- stateful packet inspection? NAT address translation?
Third, there's a usability problem, starting with navigating the menus of the version 6.xx software... Although I'm sure the color scheme was meant to give this software a look and feel something like one of the many games that are out there (a kind of dark and gothic look), what things are "clickable" in the user interface is not entirely obvious, and it's hard to tell if the checkboxes are checked or not. Things that are clickable should look like they are, whether by being made to look like buttons, or being underlined like links, or in some other way that the typical computer user will be able to tell at a glance that something more will happen if they click on it -- and the manual is only marginally helpful in making clear what is and is not clickable.
The useability problem also extends to the manual... While there are five tabs in the main menuing system of the software that represent some kind of effort made in the user interface to organize functions in a way intended to make them easier to find, the manual completely ignores this organizational effort. Instead, the manual likes to jump around from something under one tab, to something under another tab, and then back to some under that earlier tab -- and there aren't a lot of clear headings in the manual that might actually provide a system of order that would cause the jumping around to make some kind of sense. This makes looking up different parts of the user interface rather difficult.
Fourth, there is a bugginess problem, starting with the priority and allow/block settings for each application (BTW, they should have used the word "processes" instead of "applications" -- their settings are actually per process, and there is an important different between a process and an application). One of the few clearly clickable items in the user interface is supposed to allow the application settings to be "reset" -- only "reset" doesn't quite mean what everyone would think "reset" means -- it does not undo your changes to the application settings and bring them back to some set of factory defaults. Instead, it is a way to universally change all application settings to whatever priority level and allow/block setting you've selected on two menu items, nearby.
With such a "reset" button (which really functions as a global "set" button), one would think that you could specify a global setting for all applications (actually, processes), and then go into the other part of the user interface where per-application settings could be tinkered with so that you could set a few specific applications to other settings than whatever you used as a "global" setting. But the software seems to suffer unpredictable bouts of selective amnesia where it decides to forget a setting you gave an application, and this most often happens after you've turned off and then rebooted your computer at some later time -- indeed, I found myself facing episodes of the software having thrown out every per-application setting I had ever made! And sometimes, this forgetting involves changing everything to the last global setting, and sometimes, this forgetting involves changing some per-application settings to something that I had never set any of them to. It's actually unpredictable!
Finally, with this card and its software installed, there are recurring instances in which I cannot get either Firefox or Internet Explorer to start -- I can just keep clicking on their icons, again and again, and nothing happens. This occurs more often when you have the user interface of the version 6.xx software open so that you can use its fancy real-time performance graphs to watch what this card is doing, but it also still occasionally happens even when the user interface is not open. I find that the only thing I can do (short of rebooting) is to go into Task Manager, and stop whatever Firefox or Internet Explorer process is running as a result of previous unsuccessful attempts to start them, and then I can click on their icons and get on with using them. The version 6.xx software may not have this effect on games, but I have to believe that even gamers still occasionally want open a browser to do more mundane Internet-related tasks, such as maybe buy something online?
In short, if this thing worked, and actually did the things it is supposed to do (including the firewall and buffering downloads, etc.), it would be a really nice idea, and I would even buy multiple ones of these to make the Internet functionality of a whole bunch of computers under my care work faster and better. But the implementation in this case is horrible. Did anyone at this company put themselves through a simple "user experience" test to see what it's like for someone to buy one of these, install it, and then use it based solely on what comes in the box? Did anyone at this company do any testing of this software to ensure that settings selected by a user remain set as they intended or that this software wouldn't interfere with the more day-to-day kinds of Internet uses beyond gaming?
These guys have some work to do.
Feature Killer Xeno Pro Gaming Network Card (Whitebox)
- Speed - Updated drivers and software make your online game traffic faster than ever with Killer? Xeno? Pro.
- Intelligence - We've upgraded Xeno's Game Detect technology to identify, prioritize and accelerate your online game traffic faster and more efficiently.
- Maximum Control - Bandwidth Control is better than ever with our new Visual Bandwidth Control? software.
- Visibility - All the performance information from Dashboard and a whole lot more in integrated, at-a-glance readouts - perfect for seeing the health of your online gaming PC.
Related Post
- Diamond Multimedia BizView USB to HDMI Video and Audio Adapter (BVU1000)
- TiVo Premiere TCD746320 (Black) with Product Lifetime Service (No
Monthly Fees) and 3-YR Warranty, Bundle - Pinnacle PCTV To Go HD Wireless
Product Details
EAN : 0857422004075UPC : 857422004075
MPN : 0857422004075
Brand : BigFoot Networks
Weight : 1 pounds
Height : 3 inches
Length : 10 inches
Width : 7 inches
Binding : Personal Computers
Manufacturer : Bigfoot Networks
Publisher : Bigfoot Networks
Studio : Bigfoot Networks
Where To Buy
You can buy Killer Xeno Pro Gaming Network Card (Whitebox) on Amazon . Click here to Read More
